Review of Now the Wolf Has Come: The Creek Nation in the Civil War By Christine Schultz White and Benton R. White

Authors

Rebecca Bales, State University of New York at Oswego

Date of this Version

Winter 1998

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 1, Winter 1998, pp. 49-50.

Comments

Copyright 1998 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

Opothleyahola, one of the most revered Muskogee leaders from the Upper Creek town of Tuckabatchee, led his people through many hardships during his lifetime. His people revered him for his wisdom, courage, and insight. Christine Schultz White and Benton R. White, authors of Now The Wolf Has Come: The Creek Nation in the Civil War, describe Opothleyahola as the Creeks' spokesman and their "shield against the outside world." Opothleyahola tried to maintain his people's traditional beliefs at a time when outside influence threatened the social structures and customs of all Native Americans. He led his people during the 1830s when the federal government forced several tribes, including the Creek nation, to the Indian Territory and again in the winter of 1861-62 when approximately nine thousand Creeks made their way north from the Indian Territory to Kansas with promises of aid from the Union. Now the Wolf Has Come is the story of Opothleyahola and his people's trek north and the factionalism within the Creek nation as it became embroiled in the Civil War.

Opothleyahola's trek north in the face of great danger and the loss of many lives is unique, but the fact that his people became divided, eventually chose different sides in a war they did not make, and met with the Union's betrayal is not. Many tribes took different sides in the war between the states. The reasons for this factionalism were not necessarily to gain influence with the government. Instead many tribes "saw the war between North and South as little more than a chance to renew old blood feuds with rival factions and clans within their own nation." Such was the case with the Creek nation as the authors diligently point out. Pursued by Confederate forces and his blood enemy, Daniel Mclntosh, Opothleyahola and his followers traveled through one of the worst winters to reach Union territory and promised assistance.

The strength of Now the Wolf Has Come lies in its evenhanded depiction of the intense antagonism between factions within the Creek nation. Although the book contains much repetition and considerable supposition, the authors depict the turmoil and hostility among the Muskogees by elaborating on the reasons Opothleyahola's band and the Mclntosh band chose to become involved in a war when the stakes were so low. Ultimately, Opothleyahola's people lost everything and the Mclntosh band gained nothing. This situation reaffirmed the federal government's efforts to assimilate Native Americans.